Years ago, when my oldest child Luke was young, we had company for dinner. Luke was asked to say the blessing. His prayer; "Dear God, thank you for this food and please don't let it be poisoned", was startling, to say the least. The company found it vastly amusing. I found it vastly mortifying and perplexing. What deep-seated anxiety was being revealed? Much later we discovered that his concerns over poisons had to do with the murderous habits of a royal family in the book, "Marlfox", that was much on my son's mind at the time. I had forgotten the incident until recently when Luke was helping me set out dinner. He started laughing as he watched me prepare plates. I set everyone's plate out except Jack's. Jack's plate of food was instead whisked to the corner of the kitchen where, with a turned back, I quickly drizzled something onto it from a dark green glass bottle. After setting it out I then shoo'd son #5 away from Jack's plate in an apparently suspicious manner before inviting Jack to sit. In Luke's opinion I had acted so untrustworthy that if he had still been 5, and thinking of Redwall, he would have afraid to eat.

The dark green glass bottle holds MCT oil. Jack takes it 3 times a day but actively dislikes it, thus the clandestine dosing. Originally I tried to be up front about it and gave it in apple juice, as suggested by the dietician. It came straight back up along with everything else he had consumed for about, umm, 3 weeks. Most unpleasant. Now I'm continually on the lookout for ways to sneak it into Jack. Baked into brownies or drizzled onto pancakes are the two most successful ways to date. Unfortunately, neither foods are really the cornerstone of a sound diet. Most other recipes I've found require too large a serving size for a toddler to realistically eat. So back to secretive spiking.

It is worth the subterfuge. Jack's geneticist was emphatic that he was prescribing MCT only because I wanted to try it and not because any studies backed its efficacy. Which I understood and appreciated. I don't want a snake oil salesman for Jack's medical care. However, I had read about it on the UMDF website and the geneticist agreed it couldn't hurt. MCT, in anecdotal glory, has made a huge difference! Jack's energy levels have skyrocketed.

Speaking of medical concoctions. I've always bought clear Gatorade to add cornstarch to. The clear because I was holding onto a small vestige of my life before FOD's. The life that didn't include high fructose corn syrup sweetened and dye laden beverages. (Insert supercilious opinion here.) Jack never much liked his "Go Go" juice but would drink it down like the trooper he is. Last time I went shopping for Gatorade they were out of the clear, so Lemon-Lime Gatorade came home instead. Guess what? 8 oz. Lemon-lime Gatorade plus 1 T cornstarch equals liquid Sweet-Tarts.

Until Jack is old enough to manage his own supplements and medications I'll be spiking away. Who knows what other new and bizarre flavors our experimenting may yield. Just don't sit at Jack's spot at the table.